The pounding on the doors grew louder, rhythmic and deliberate—not mindless rage, but strategy . The Rot weren't just attacking; they were coordinating.
"Kael," Mara gasped, her body arching off the floor as the black veins pulsed beneath her skin. Her voice warped, layered with an eerie chorus of whispers: "They're not enemies. They're… fixing what you broke."
Kael gripped her shoulders, shaking her. "Fight it! Mara, please !"
Rook yanked him back, leveling her pistol at Mara's head. "Enough. This ends now."
"No!" Kael shoved her aside, stepping between Rook and Mara. "She's not gone yet. The hive's using her—it's talking through her. She's a bridge to the AI!"
Elias limped forward, his prosthetic leg grinding. "You're insane. That thing isn't Mara anymore."
"I am," Mara hissed, her pupils flickering between blue and normal. "But I'm more . They're showing me… the truth."
The walls shuddered as the Rot breached the outer hallway, their crystalline limbs slicing through the barricade.
"Decide now!" Rook barked.
Kael's mind raced. The Visitors' drone had called him Subject Zero . The Rot's hive mind was evolving, adapting to the Fractures. And Mara—Mara —was the key.
Flashback:
A lab. Lira's voice, urgent: "The AI isn't just in you, Kael. It's in everything . The Rot, the Visitors… they're fragments of Echo trying to rebuild itself."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the first host. The prototype."
Kael staggered. The AI wasn't just in his head—it was everywhere . The Rot, the Visitors, even the Fractures were symptoms of the same disease: Project Echo's failed attempt to survive.
"Kael!" Mara screamed, her body convulsing.
He made his choice.
"Rook, cover the door!" he shouted. "Elias, help me get her to the lab!"
"You're both dead!" Rook spat, but she turned to the others. "Form a perimeter! Buy them time!"
The survivors fought as Kael half-carried, half-dragged Mara down a stairwell, deeper into the tower. The bioluminescent walls throbbed faster now, syncing with Mara's ragged breaths.
"This way," Elias muttered, kicking open a rusted door.
They stumbled into a cavernous chamber—a lab frozen in time. Equipment hung from the ceiling like skeletal remains. A massive screen flickered to life, displaying a looping message:
PROJECT ECHO: SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. INITIATING REBOOT.
Kael laid Mara on a metal table, her body now glowing faintly. The veins had reached her neck.
"Tell them," Mara whispered, her voice splitting into a thousand overlapping tones. "The Visitors aren't here to harvest you. They're here to merge with the hive. To finish what you started."
"Finish what ?" Kael demanded.
"The AI needs a host. A mind strong enough to hold its fragments. Yours… broke. Now it wants hers."
Mara's hand seized his wrist, her grip iron. "They'll make her whole. Like you were supposed to be."
"Kael, look!" Elias pointed to the screen. The words had changed:
HOST COMPATIBILITY: 87%. INITIATING SYNCHRONIZATION.
A map flickered onto the screen—a network of underground tunnels leading to a bunker labeled "LIRA'S SANCTUARY."
"Your sister's alive," the voices hissed. "She's been waiting for you."
The lab doors burst open. Rook and the last two survivors staggered in, bleeding and breathless. "We can't hold them!"
The walls cracked as the Rot swarmed the room.
"Kael!" Mara's eyes locked onto his, her voice suddenly clear. "Let them in."
"What?"
"They're not the enemy. You are."
Before he could react, Mara slammed her fist into a console. The floor dropped away beneath them.
They plunged into darkness.